Sweet Dreams
by ThisIsHeavy
Summary: Arizona tries to overcome her greatest fears in order to take the next step with Callie. Grey's Anatomy is the property of Shondaland and ABC Studios productions. The characters are the sole creative property of those parties. No infringement is intended.
1. I Believe the Children are the Future

AN: So I finally got a sequel going loosely based on my other Fic When It's Over. I generally don't like writing fics where someone becomes pregnant and spends multiple chapters being pregnant and giving birth, but I actually like where this fic is going. Lots of funny, lots of sex, and as always a little drama.

* * *

Cristina is here, that's the first thought that popped in to Arizona's head when she woke up groggy and sluggish in the morning. She thought she must have been dreaming so she shut her eyes and opened them once more only to see the sight confirmed again. Cristina was sitting at the counter in her kitchen chowing down on what looked like a spinach and tomato omelet. Arizona was purely astonished at the fact that moving Callie in with her twenty whole miles away from the chaotic hospital bubble hadn't done anything to keep everyone from making the weekly trek out to their house for breakfast.

Arizona listened as Cristina chomped down on a large section of omelet chewing on it in an almost goat like manner.

"Mmm Callie this is so much better than Mer's egg-plant omelet mess"

Arizona was used to it really she was. She'd been living with Callie for six months now and she wasn't at all bothered by the fact that Callie has a revolving door policy when it comes to friends and visitation. One night in particular Arizona was dead set on going to bed at 10pm no matter what. But someone forgot to tell that to Mark Sloan who showed up without warning at 1am mulling over engagement ring options. No matter how many times they both tried to tell him that proposing would only end in sad, sad things for him and Lexie, Mark just seemed dead set on a marriage. Arizona looked over her shoulder to find Callie suddenly standing behind her hands strategically placed around her girlfriend's hips.

"Babe, are you Ok?" Callie asked with genuine concern in her voice.

Arizona knew what Callie was asking and she loved that Callie could read her and know what was going on with her without even saying much. Arizona had been having these nightmares for the past couple of weeks and a couple nights ago it was so bad that Arizona woke in a cold sweat to find Callie hovering over her trying in her special Callie way to calm her down (this involved a lot of rambling about everything from God to ice-cream sandwiches.

"I'm better now." Arizona responded while placing a kiss on Callie's cheek.

"Cristina had a tough night and she hasn't really slept." Callie explained as apologetically as possible. Arizona simply nodded her compliance as she did her little zombie walk over to the coffee machine. Arizona was actually happy to have someone else to focus on because usually this type of morning would consist of Callie pestering her about what all went on in her dream until someone's pager went off. Arizona was trying not to be too obvious as she watched Callie shuffle around the kitchen. She was in awe and absolutely school girl giddy every day that she woke up with Callie she wanted to try and create a memory of everything that made Callie so wonderful so she sometimes found herself staring for long periods of time. It took that long to take in the smile that seemed to grow out of nowhere and fill the whole room, the rich glowing warmth of her skin, the intoxicating sent of lilacs, the soft giggle that grew in to a reverberating chuckle that reached in to Arizona and tickled her from outside in.

"Ugh, if I knew I'd be subjected to this googly eyes fest I wouldn't have come." Cristina suddenly announced

Callie suddenly looks up to find a startled Arizona looking as if she'd just come out of a trance.

"Are you sure you're alright?" Callie questioned with a hint of demand in her tone. Arizona knew things were probably coming to a head. She couldn't distract Callie with compliments or sexy time, even if the sex was earth shatteringly mind numbingly good. The point was Callie had clearly had enough.

"Hey Cris are you done eating?" Callie tossed the question out as if the answer didn't really matter

"No, but I can tell when I'm not wanted" Cristina said scarfing down the last of her omelet.

"Good, then I'll catch up with you at the hospital." Callie said walking Cristina over toward the door.

The lock hadn't even twisted in the door knob before Callie was drilling Arizona about her sudden strange behavior.

"You're going to tell me about this dream right now Arizona."

"No I'm not, I'm not going to tell you about it because you don't need to know" Arizona realized the hole she was in even before the words were fully out of her mouth.

Arizona watched Callie's big brown eyes grow wide with shock she was yay shy of rambling in Spanish mad. Then she watched as her girlfriend did something Arizona had never seen her do before. Pulling her hair from its loose soft curls in to a messy pony Callie started a breathing exercise in between repeated chants of do not kill the baby surgeon. Then Arizona froze with mild trepidation as Callie approached her placing both arms gently on to Arizona's shoulders.

"I want to help you, but you're going to have to let me."

If only Callie knew she may not want to help out after all she would probably go running for the hills and never even look back. Arizona thought about giving Callie the brush off, but judging by the don't-bull-shit-me expression on Callie's face she guessed that wouldn't be such a good idea so instead she settled for lying, because lying was always the best solution to a difficult problem.

"It was just the little kids dream again"

Callie's look of concern turned to one of comfort it was about three months ago that Arizona finally told her about the little kids dream.

* * *

A dinner Party about 3 Months Ago

Having people over was starting to grow on Arizona and having Owen, Cristina, Mark, and Lexie over in particular, was something she could certainly see becoming a regular occurrence. Callie had organized the night's festivities as a clever way for the rest of them to try and gauge Lexie's opinion on the subject of marriage, something Mark had been sweating bullets over for what seemed like an eternity lately.

"So Lexie, how'd you like the premi rotation today?" Arizona started the conversation knowing that Lexie had been in the children's ward all day thanks to some careful planning on her part.

"Oh it was great we did mostly circumcisions, but there was a little girl with placinta congestion in the thought."

"Aren't kids great?" Arizona added with pure joy in her voice.

"Well I'm in no rush to start having any" Lexie adds before delving in to a plate of crawfish etouffee that smelled like heaven and tasted even better. Mark's facial expression suddenly changed from hopeful confidence to disappointed reserve a point which Callie noticed and tried to rectify by redirecting the conversation

"Well you would want to get married first right?"

"Yeah I guess eventually right. Kids are cute and cuddly and happy"

"And poopy " Cristina adds which elicits a fit of giggles from everyone but Mark.

Owen gives Cristina a knowing glance and she quickly corrects her stance for Mark's sake.

"Well I mean I'm Nancy Reagan on the subject, just say no you know what I mean. But uh…someone's gotta have them and why not you little Grey"

Lexie seemed to be growing uncomfortable with all the baby talk and attention being focused on her. Her brow furrowed the way it sometimes did before she went in to a complete panic. Mark not wanting her to be put off by the conversation attempted to shift the focus of the conversation to an unappreciative Callie.

"You know Callie, you'd be good with a kid"

"What!?" Callie declared in a flustered panic

"Yeah Torres, I think he's right" Owen chimed in with a giddy smile on his face

"I mean you've got the fun goofiness that kids like, you give great if not convoluted pep talks which is perfect for that awkward teen faze and best of all you'll have a very well fed child if nothing else." Owen says this while shoveling another forkful of rice and crawfish into his mouth. If only that flame-headed know-it-all could see Arizona's growing level of discomfort maybe they could have avoided the tension filled situation that followed.

Everyone was gleefully clamoring on and on about how great of parents Arizona and Callie would make, well all except Cristina who seemed focused on dissecting every last section of her plate before consuming it.

"I guess at some point it would be nice if we did, have kids." Callie says this last part with her big brown eyes turned up toward Arizona with hope for confirmation. What was she supposed to do? Lie? No, she couldn't do that then she'd end up like one of those women whose husbands keep impregnating them because they think they are doing God's work even though they can barely feed the eleven kids they already have. Ok, maybe not like that, but still she couldn't lie to Callie about this.

"I think we'd have to talk about it but anything is possible" She told herself it wasn't lying if all you did was avoid the truth.

But they were unrelenting

"What's to talk about?" Mark added "Torres' been trying to have a baby since I met her." Arizona quietly looked on in shock startled by this new revelation as Callie choked back a gulp of water. It was times like this that Arizona truly appreciated Cristina's self centered approach to conversation. If it didn't directly involve her, Cristina wasn't going to talk about it.

"But…but you can't even change a diaper" Arizona fumbled through the statement still stunned at the fact that Callie had managed to keep this from her for over a year.

"That's what nannies are for" Callie responded very matter-of-factly

It was beginning to feel about as comfortable as the Christmas dinner at Meredith's house when Bailey decided to give her father what-for. But Arizona didn't care she was suddenly overwhelmed with feelings of inadequacy and disappointment in herself because that's the feeling the thought of having her own children brought about.

"You'd have kids just to pass them off to a nanny every day and only spend what? Ten minutes a day with them?"

"Ten very blissful minutes." Callie retorted jovially.

"well, some people shouldn't have kids." Arizona found herself blurting out in an unintentionally cold tone. That effectively ended the conversation and Cristina took the opportunity to try and ingratiate herself with Mark so that she could get in on a facial reconstruction he was doing. Yes Cristina was a cardio princess, but she was also very much in to the guts and gore and this particular reconstruction offered plenty of that

Later that night when everyone had left for the night Callie and Arizona stood silently side by side in the kitchen doing the dishes and avoiding the questions. Questions like why had Arizona grown so drastically hostile over the topic of children. She did, after-all, work with them on a daily basis, I mean they were only the thing that most put a smile on her face so it was no surprise that Callie was struggling to understand this paradox . And why hadn't Callie ever mentioned the fact that she was itching to turn herself into a baby machine? I mean you would think that after a year and 9 months of dating (yes Arizona had been counting down to the exact day, and no she wasn't ashamed of it), so anyway you would think after a year and 9 months and 23 days at some point Callie would have mentioned the whole wanting to have babies thing.

"Am I one of those people?" Callie finally broke the silence. Arizona was startled out of her transitive state by the question and hadn't really been sure what was asked.

"What?"

"Am I one of those people to you? Someone who shouldn't have kids?" Callie clarified

Arizona really did not want to be having this conversation because it was not full of joy and awesomeness, rather it was full of the dark and twisties which she found more befitting of a Meredith and Cristina conversation.

"I guess I can take your silence as a yes then" Callie continued

Arizona really wanted to respond she really did, but again dark and twisties were not her thing.

"Can you pass the dish soap please" She asked too scared to even make eye contact with Callie

"Really? Really" that was the response she got from an agitated Callie who simply tossed over a bottle of Dawn before storming out of the kitchen.

"Callie it's me. I can't have kids. I go to bed every night hoping I won't dream about them about visiting their graves and hearing them tell me all their hopes and dreams and everything they'll never get to be because I couldn't fix them."

Callie froze mid way past the kitchen and turned to see an earnest looking Arizona trying to finally reach out to her.

"I have to visit them every day at work and every day I hear their stories about what they want to be when they grow up. They want to be Mermaids, or super heroes, or tree dwelling elves. But before they get a chance to experience any of that they're gone."

"They don't all die" Callie tries to remind Arizona

"No but the ones that do remind me every night in my dreams of how much I failed them. I hear them from their little coffins telling me all the things they'll never get to be. So like I said some people can't have kids I don't want to fail my own child that way."

That night was the most uncomfortable night of sleep Arizona had experienced since Callie moved in. She didn't like opening herself up to vulnerability but she understood it was necessary and she knew that night that Callie would take care of her.

* * *

Today was a little different this wasn't the little kids dream this dream was something else entirely but it was frightening enough that Arizona was determined to handle it on her own.

"I've been thinking about this dream you're having." Callie exclaimed still believing it had something to do with kids.

"I don't think it's a bad thing." She added while popping a grape into her mouth.

Arizona while confused was somewhat intrigued and wanted to know where this latest declaration from Callie was headed.

"When I was a little girl I wanted to be the queen of Utopia. I had this fancy crown and my father bought me a thrown and…"

"Your father bought you a thrown?" Arizona questioned in sheer amusement.

"would you just listen. So anyway when I was nine my cousin Oscar got upset with me because I beat him at Tetris and he started going on and on about how there was no such place as Utopia and I just ran away crying. So I grew up to be this hard core kick-ass surgeon but I lost out on my biggest dream because Oscar killed the possibility for me."

"The possibility of being princess of Utopia?" Arizona couldn't help mocking Callie

"Do not mock me; I'm trying to do the whole comforting shoulder thing, and once again you are missing the point."

Arizona loved this about Callie, even if she never made any sense the fact that she tried to, and usually fell flat on her face, made Arizona's heart flitter with glee.

"The point is in your dream you get to hear from all these kids, you get the comfort of knowing that they are off somewhere being mermaids, and superheroes, and queens of Utopia in perpetuity cause the ones that make it while they get to live, they don't get to dream forever. There are so many cousin Oscars in the world to ruin their dreams for them. So, this dream you're having, it's not so bad."

This is exactly why Arizona loved Callie because she was the kind of woman that could look at any situation and pull something worthwhile out of it, because when Arizona was least expecting it Callie would say something so eloquently beautiful that she could barely gather her thoughts afterwards

Arizona put her coffee down and began to approach Callie slowly and cautiously

"What are you doing?" came Callie's concerned question.

"I love you, you know that right."

"I've been told." Callie responded with fake cockiness

"And I think I want to kiss you." Arizona adds

"I wouldn't object to that"

Arizona stands nose to nose with Callie peppering her with kisses

"And I think now I want to take you to the bedroom" Arizona continues before giving Callie another slow and soft embrace.

"That's probably a good idea." Callie affirms as the two saunter off to their bed.

Maybe it wasn't the best way to handle the situation but anything that ended with Callie in the bedroom was a good plan in Arizona's mind. So Yay sex! At least for now anyway.

"And Cal, when we have kids you are not buying them a thrown."

It hadn't slipped Arizona's mind that she'd just presented the prospect of children as an eventual occurrence, she'd been sure that it would eventually happen for over a month now but she didn't want Callie getting overly exited they needed to broach the issue with extreme caution.

* * *

**I Neeeeed Reviews Please!** I can't tell if I've got Arizona's voice right but I'm working on it let me know. :)


	2. Let's Get Married

Arizona found herself sitting in the waiting lobby at the airport her foot tapped nervously as she counted the number of holiday bows wrapped around each column. There were exactly forty-four, but Arizona figured she should count again for certainty's sake. Just as she reached number thirty-one a soft melodic, yet somewhat robotic voice came over the P.A system to announce the arrival of flight 3412 out of LAX. Her entire body jolted up with a sudden charge of nervous energy

Arizona's gaze was fixed on the arrivals gate she wanted to make sure she didn't miss him like the last time. She was sure she hadn't even blinked but still somehow he managed to sneak past her. With her eyes still focused on the arrivals she heard his voice in a booming whisper bellowing into her ear

"What'cha doing Zoe?"

"Daddy!" Arizona claimed turning to greet her father with a smile. His eyes moved down to the coffee cup in her hands. He didn't have to say anything Arizona just knew. She skulked over to a near by trash can and disposed of her still half full white chocolate raspberry mocha.

"Still drinking that stuff I see"

"I've been trying to quit" Arizona lied

Her father had no response save for a few grunts and groans. As she moved to get her father's luggage from baggage claim. It took a while for her to notice that her father was still standing in the arrivals bay.

"Daddy?" Arizona called after him

"Zoe I think you forgot something" He was right she'd forgotten something of paramount importance and she didn't even notice.

Walking back over toward her father, Arizona leaned in and gave him as big a hug as she possibly could. It amazed her that even as an adult she couldn't fit her arms all the way around his forboading figure.

"That's my girl"

The ride over to Arizona's house was strange to say the least. Her father insisted on driving and talking about things Arizona did not want to discuss. But for Daniel Robbins avoiding rehashing unsavory topics that made Arizona uncomfortable was a sort of sport.

"So this one's lasted quite some time now, surprised you haven't sent her packing yet."

Arizona was sure she might end up crying somewhere in a corner by the time she got her father home but was doing her best not to let on. They talked about her job; they talked about her mother's new kitchen the one she'd been begging for in excess of five years; they seemed to be talking about everything under the sun except for Callie. Arizona thought they were out of the woods but Daniel was just getting started. Making a sudden sharp turn he pulled onto Poe street driving ever slower as they inched their way up to Arizona's driveway.

"You know something Arizona, life takes planning and foresight, and commitment"

"Daddy, sir with all due respect I…"

"You're going to listen to me Robbins, just because you love a little differently than most people that's not an excuse to forsake commitment."

This was the argument she was afraid of. It wasn't so much an argument since her father's word was usually final. But ever since she left home for college her father had been doing his best to not so subtly tell her that she was too promiscuous for his liking.

"Daddy if…"

"Now then, this Torres girl, I looked her up she was married you know"

Arizona's face turned beat red with a combination of anger, frustration, and bashful shame. She'd always been like this around her father. The man was a no nonsense type of guy who wouldn't tolerate any sort of excuse from his children ever. This is exactly why Arizona was hesitant for anyone to meet him especially Callie.

"She's got a nice size family; they've done well for themselves too"

He spoke as if Arizona didn't already know these things. This was his idea of hinting that Callie was a good match for her long term.

"What are you saying Daddy?"

The car pulled in to the driveway and Arizona found herself searching for an excuse not to join her father. She needed a break to get her head together and she was hoping Callie would understand and not be angry with her for what she was about to do. Her dad pulled the door open and noticed a carton of cigarettes in the side door.

"Are you trying to quit those too?" he asked with a slightly judgmental stare.

"You know what daddy I just remembered I have to go in to work and uh take care of some things so, uh ring the bell Callie will let you in and um try not to frighten her."

Arizona told herself that Callie wouldn't be upset and even if she was it was something that could be easily fixed by a nice bottle of wine, or maybe several nice bottles of wine.

She waited for the door to open to make sure her father got in ok but was surprised to see a half naked Callie come to the door. They were going to have to talk about her proclivity for nakedness.

* * *

The door bell was ringing and Callie was still mid song in the shower. After the third ring Callie hopped out hoping it was some sort of emergency cause why the hell else wouldn't Arizona use her keys. Shimmying in to her shorts and a bra she marched her way over to the door thinking she would find her locked out girlfriend

"Baby did you forget…" Callie's voice trailed off as she stared at the figure standing before her

"Col. Daniel Robbins, US Marines"

Callie was going to kill Arizona. She was absolutely going to string her up by her little blonde curls and not let her get away with it this time. Who doesn't tell someone when their parents are in town? Callie knew Arizona had daddy issues but this was totally uncalled for.

"Dr. Callie Torres, orthopedics"

"Well would you like some privacy, I can let myself in."

Callie found herself a little more than confused.

"You seem a bit cold ma'am "the Colonel clarified

Great not only had her girlfriend's father seen her in her bra and underwear, he was getting a sneak peak at her northern peeks. A few minutes later after dressing herself in more situation appropriate attire she found herself fumbling over conversation topics and trying really hard not to make a fool of herself. It wasn't till she accidentally cut herself trying to open a bottle of beer that things seemed to loosen up.

"Are you poring beer over that cut ?"

"It's um I learned it in the Peace Corps beer fixes everything we used to say"

Col. Robbins seemed to perk up at the fact that Callie had been in the Peace Corps something that Callie didn't fail to take notice of.

"Yeah I worked with them for almost a year right out of undergrad, it was one of the best experiences of my life" Callie knew she was brown nosing and she wasn't ashamed of it, after that little situation at the door she was determined to turn things around and make a good impression.

"Service is always a good experience, and to do it at such a young age. I can't even remember what Zoe was doing at that age"

He paused for a moment, his facial muscles contorting as he thought about that last statement.

"Well no I do remember, she was in jail."

Callie had to fight not to spit out her beer in front of the colonel but she was surely doing a mental spit-take at the revelation of this information.

"So Dr. Torres I've got a bit of an appetite on me would you like to join me out to lunch?"

"Oh um you don't have to go out for lunch I'll make us something, and you can call me Callie by the way."

Col. Robbins perked up even more which Callie guessed was at the fact that she cooked, Callie was beginning to feel like superwoman it was as if she could do no wrong in his eyes.

"How's club-sandwiches and three bean chili?"

Just as they'd agreed to a lunch which was sure to be full of conversation and an explanation for why Arizona had spent three whole months in a minimum security prison Arizona came prancing in bottle of wine in hand.

"Callie, hey I got wine and a movie and…Daddy! You're still here?" Arizona announced shocked to see her father sitting at the kitchen nook table.

"Where else would I be Zoe?"

"Yeah where else would he be Zoe." Callie asked in mock consensus.

Arizona could think of a lot of places for her father to be none of which were in her house preparing to have lunch with her girlfriend. Everyone was taking notice of her relative discomfort. It was always like this and the reason her parents hadn't met a single one of her girlfriends since Joanne. Col. Robbins looked over at a concerned Callie as if to share a secret with her.

"We usually don't meet the girlfriends" he explained "I wouldn't have even met you if I wasn't in town for a meeting"

Callie and Col. Robbins were getting along like two peas in a pod, probably aided by the fact that Callie made chili for lunch because Arizona mentioned a while ago that it was her dad's favorite. What she hadn't expected was the chattiness they had between them; her father was not a chatty man. In between bites of his sandwich and swallowing a mouthful of chili Col. Robbins never missed an opportunity to complement Callie or point out that she was a good influence on Arizona.

Then it happened, the thing Arizona had been freaking out about for three weeks now, the thing she was so scared to tell Callie about was happening and this time she couldn't wake herself out of it. What was worse was the way it happened. Arizona hadn't expected it to go down in such a hurried and random fashion but her father was the kind of man who made plans, and when she thought about it Arizona should have expected this was his plan all along.

"So you were going to tell me more about this little stint in jail Arizona had" Callie announced to Arizona's surprise.

"Yeah she was involved in a protest the whole thing got all harry truly lacked any foresight and they all got carted off to prison. It was just a horrid time to try and protest I mean during an election year with a no-nonsense governor" It still amazed Arizona that her father found a way to blame the whole situation on Arizona's lack of planning.

"It was a long time ago daddy" Arizona said this more for Callie's edification than for her fathers.

"Yeah well she's learned her lesson since then, haven't you Zoe?" Arizona nodded her head in agreement as her father continued.

"Which is why I just can't understand what you're doing in this relationship" he finished.

Col. Robbins was not one to mince words and it truly perplexed him as to how his daughter could be in an almost two year long relationship with a woman like Callie and not even consider a commitment. The room grew drastically quiet and Daniel knew it was because of him. He was admiring the sight of Callie comforting his daughter the way he used to when she was a little girl. Their hands were intertwined and Callie was using her other hand to slowly rub circles around Arizona's back.

"Life is about making commitments and honoring those commitments, and two years of flying by the seat of your pants is two years enough Zoe. I mean Callie's great isn't she?"

"She's amazing daddy"

Col. Robbins looked relieved at Arizona's confirmation

"Well, that settles it then let's get on with a proposal"

It was as simple as that for Arizona's dad. He'd come in, met Callie and judged her to be a good person. What more could there be to it, Arizona had to be crazy not to be proposing after nearly three years. Except that Callie's ex-husband cheated on her, and then he went and died, oh and except that Callie's first girlfriend ran out on her without so much as an explanation not too long after, or better yet the fact that they couldn't even be legally married. But that wasn't an important consideration right, it's not like any of that mattered. The truth is Arizona had been trying to get herself prepared to do just that, but she kept having this dream that whenever she did propose Callie would run off scared as all hell and never speak to her again. So she did make a plan, it wasn't the plan her father wanted, but it was indeed a plan. She was going to wait for Callie to propose to her, which Arizona was sure would happen soon because after all Arizona was awesome.

"Daddy I'm sure that will happen eventually but…"

"Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow Zoe you can't just creep along at a petty pace young lady."

"Did you just quote Macbeth sir?" Callie finally spoke up.

"Now all I'm trying to do here Callie is figure out why Arizona doesn't think your worth it, that's something worth finding out now isn't it?"

Arizona's dad had a bad habit of posing questions in a way that made disagreeing with him impossible, but Callie was holding her own.

"Sir, I think what Arizona was trying to say is just that there are some extenuating circumstances that make our situation a bit different."

"Well if that's true that is an excuse, no excuses Zoe do or don't do"

There it was her father had thrown down an ultimatum and Arizona had two options neither one seeming to have an even remotely decent outcome. She could either propose and watch Callie scamper away in a terrified haze or tell her father to go screw himself which she was physically incapable of doing and would probably result in her lying on the bedroom floor in the fetal position.

"I uh…Callie would you like to um make a commit would you commit to a relationship with me" Arizona finally thought she'd found some loop-hole terminology that really didn't mean anything and Callie certainly seemed relieved that it wasn't truly a proposal. Just when they both thought the whole matter had been settled Col. Robbins broke their gleeful celebratory embrace.

"Now what the hell was that? That's no proposal if you ask me. You may as well have been asking her to pass the remote. Now you're going to do this again and you're gonna do it the right way none of that commit to a relationship BS. Oh, and I brought your grandmother's ring."

Just as Col. Robbins was pulling the ring out of his pocket Callie excused herself from the table. She'd been relatively silent the whole time, but the minute she saw that ring she got up grabbed her jacket and walked straight out the door. This was the nightmare and now it was real life Arizona couldn't believe this was happening but deep down she always knew it would.

* * *

P.S I love this chapter and yes I realize I just gave myself props but who hasn't done that once or twice. Once again** Review Please**


	3. Teacher One More Try

"Anybody seen Dr. Chang from Ortho? I need an assist on a spinal disk realignment" Derek asked to no one in particular while gathered at the nurses station. Callie somehow managed to hear this from miles away and scooped up the surgery before anyone could object.

"Geez Torres you're like a little bunny rabbit today, haven't put down your scalpel once" Derek made the observation as more of a compliment than anything else, but of course Mark had to chime in.

"She's just avoiding Goldie locks"

"Huh, trouble in paradise? Maybe I could help." Derek offered. Callie shrugged it off because she wasn't about to take relationship advise from The Hair, that's what she and Bailey had taken to calling him, she also didn't think she needed any advise because she was handling things just fine.

"Mr. Post it wedding thinks he's qualified to administer couples therapy." Mark quipped

Just as Callie was about to walk off to surgery with Derek Owen pulled her aside in a hurried fashion.

"Are you sure you want to go in there Torres"

"It's a surgery why wouldn't I want to go in?" Callie asked. Before Owen could even get an explanation out Arizona rushed around the corner and headed in to the OR. Her blonde curls sticking out from the sides of her scrub cap she tossed away what had to be her third cup of coffee today. Callie thought Arizona might try to talk to her but she didn't she simply turned to her girlfriend with a smile and calmly said

"You're avoiding me; that's ok cause I know it's what you do. But when you're done avoiding me I'll be at home" then she literally skipped in to the OR room. What kind of doctor skips in to an OR, Callie guessed it was the same kind of doctor that would spend the whole day hopped up on coffee and humming songs that contain the word skn-a-merink in them. Yes it was true that Callie loved all those things but right now she hated them because those were the things that made it so difficult to remember that she was supposed to be mad at Arizona.

"Torres are you coming" Derek called after her from inside the OR, that's when it dawned on Callie that the two of them had planned this whole thing. Derek Shepherd the couples whisperer and Arizona Robbins the marrying woman were trying to trap her. But since Callie couldn't remember the last time she got to work on a spine she caved and went in anyway.

"So this surgery should be what two three hours" Derek announced "that's a good enough amount of time for me to brag about how blissfully married I am"

Callie along with a few of the nurses groaned in mock agitation.

"You can talk all you want, I will only be answering questions of the medical variety" Callie declared

Midway through the surgery, just when Callie had heard more than enough of Derek's Meredith love fest, He figured out a way to ask her what she thought was a medical question.

"Dr. Torres do you see this crack on Disk five?"

"Yeah it looks pretty deep, I think maybe support rods should be able to handle it though"

"So, you'll be linking disk five to disk six with support rods." Arizona clarified to the bewildered interns in the room

"Yep it's as if they were getting married" Derek chimed in with about as much grace as a drunken prom dance.

Callie felt duped, it wasn't like she didn't want to talk about it, she just didn't understand why everyone in the hospital had to be on her case about it. Even the nurses were giving their two cents. She went to pick up some charts from nurse Tyler and he took the opportunity to mention how great Arizona was. It wasn't until he used the word awesome that Callie knew someone was suffering from a case of loose lips syndrome. Only Arizona calls herself awesome, everyone else uses words like peppy, bubbly, annoying, or hyper, oh and Cristina's personal favorite wako. She'd gone around the hospital probably blathering on about her awesomeness to the point that everyone wanted Callie to fix it so they could move on with the day.

"You know on second thought, maybe disk five will fix itself. Maybe disk six's support rods will just make things worse" Arizona looked deflated at Callie's heavy handed double speak.

"Self correction is extremely rare, I think I'd like to go with the support rods" Arizona said fully participating in the secondary conversation Callie had started.

"But the rods might put too much pressure on both of them and then it'll be permanent paralysis"

"Ok well that's happened what once in every 2,000 cases, while self correction happens about what? Once every three thousand or so."

The nurses were busy trying to figure out who was disk five and who was disk six while Derek did his best to stay out of the mess he'd created.

"Why don't we just wait a while" Callie seemed adamant about this.

"I can't wait much longer Dr. Torres The patient is exposed and I'm going to have to close soon if you two don't figure this out."

What followed was a somewhat immature staring match between Callie and Arizona that ended whe Arizona finally put her foot down.

"My patient my rules so I say we go with the support rods"

Callie let out a huff of frustration, even though she'd been an attending for a while now, Arizona still treated her as if she were a rookie intern.

"The rods are too big" Callie said in an effort to compromise

"What?" Arizona asked perplexed. Everyone in the room was still perplexed as to what exactly was being discussed but they continued on in their respective bubbles mindlessly trying to follow the conversation and wait for the relevant portions.

"The rods are too big for disk five; we need smaller rods, ones that don't remind disk five of disk six's dead grandfather."

"So if we got say new rods, maybe pin rods, would that work?" Arizona asked with a hint of hope n her eyes. Callie knew what was happening and she also knew that she was letting it happen, but maybe it was time. It had been almost two whole years which was the longest either one of them had stayed in a relationship and been happy about it.

"Yeah, I think with new rods disk five would be happy to marry disk six." Arizona lit up with child like excitement and Callie couldn't help but laugh at the nurses behind her asking for confirmation on what just happened.

"So should I get the pin rods" an overly excited Garciella asked

Everyone watched with baited breath as Callie screwed in four tiny little pin rods at the critical pints in disk five and attached them to disk six. When the last pin went in the room erupted in celebratory cheers.

"So would it be fair to say that disk five and disk six are now married?" Derek asked looking over to both sides of him for confirmation.

"Yeah, I think it would." Callie agreed

"Yeah" Arizona confirmed

They were all prepping for the close when the authoritative voice of Bailey rang over the OR's intercom.

"They haven't finalized it yet" She declared from the gallery

"What's that Bailey?" Derek shouted back at her

"They have to finalize it with a kiss" The amount of swooning that followed was almost too much for Callie, but what killed her more was the incessant chanting of "kiss her" that came next. Reluctantly she marched her way over to the other side of the OR, peeled back Arizona's scrub mask and planted one very soft sweet kiss on her followed by more cheering.

* * *

Following the surgery everyone was going out of their way to congratulate Callie some of them even whistled and blew celebratory bubbles. Then there was Mark, he knew Callie better and he knew that at any moment she would probably be freaking out. Fearing that moment was coming sooner rather than later he dragged her off to an on-call room and sequestered her so she could have her little fit in private.

"How are you holding up Torres?" Mark asked as if she'd just been attacked by a wild animal.

"I'm great, I'm married. I came to work dating and now I'm married." Mark did his best to brace himself for the tear-fest he was sure would be coming.

"I heard" Mark consoled as he patted her on the back "Well It's not final yet I mean there are no rings or anything. Maybe you can still back out."

"Oh the ring is coming, it's coming and I can't back out now she'll look at me with her sad eyes and start acting like a lost puppy"

Mark took a minute to commiserate with Callie "Lexie does the sad eyes too" After a brief minute of self pity Mark cleared his throat

"Well there's only one thing to do then" he said while hoisting Callie on to her feet.

"What's that Mark?" She asked in a not too sure tone.

"Delay, delay, delay. The way I see it the ball is in your court and as long as you don't have a ring, you're technically still dating"

"Mark I said I do in front of witnesses; it's worse than the post-it wedding it's the pin-rod wedding."

"Ok well, what really has to change? You already live together and you have sex all the time…"

Callie was perplexed at how Mark had deduced this last bit of information and her confusion showed on her face, she blew a frustrated puff of air that knocked one of her dark brown locks out of place.

"I just know Torres, there's a look you have when."

"Ewe Mark I thought we talked about this." Callie interjected

"I'm just saying I have my ways of knowing. Anyway you cook for her, you clean, she picks out your clothes and you might want to tell her we miss the twins by the way, Oh and most importantly you two can't go ten minutes without mentioning each other"

Callie knew he was right. She had a horrible habit of describing her day's events in terms of where Arizona would be at the time. Like _I'll go to the store after Arizona's dental appointment_, or _did I see that movie before or after Arizona tried to cook mozzarella sticks in the toaster_. Maybe Mark was right, maybe marriage was just a word and if it meant that much to Arizona maybe Callie could make it work.

It's just like before except with rings, it's just like before except with rings; that was the mantra Callie kept repeating in her head. When Arizona's dad demanded that they have a lunch meeting to discuss Callie's plans now that she was married to Arizona, all Callie had to rely on was her montra. It was the thing she kept repeating even as Col. Robbins pulled out a brief case sized folder full of documents.

"Now normally you two would just sign a marriage license and that would take care of all this nonsense. But since all that silliness went on last election season we'll have to take the back door route"

Plopping his stack of papers on to the table he looked up to find a bewildered Callie.

"Excuse me sir but what is all this?" came Callie's weary voice

"Insurance forms, power of attorney forms, civil union documentation, oh and a petition to have your name changed"

It's just like before except with a ring, it's just like before except with a ring. It wasn't working. Callie was freaking out worse than ever. Luckily Arizona showed up mid way through Col. Robbins diatribe about securities and portfolio options.

"Hey there" She said while leaning in to give Callie a quick peck on the cheek.

She looked down at the table spotting the documents Callie had her gaze fixed on.

"Daddy what is all this? Name change request forms? You said you wouldn't do this."

Arizona could tell Callie was scared and she knew that Callie liked to run off and hide whenever she got scared so she did her best to reassure Callie that nothing was going to change.

"I like her name" Arizona announced while taking the seat next to Callie's

"Besides, today is a day to celebrate not to make calculating plans to work around a marriage license. I mean we're married, that's like the greatest thing ever."

Looking between the two of them Callie could see the resemblance both in personality and in physical characteristics. They both seem, well, stubborn, and proud, and arrogant, and beautiful, and caring, and full of warmth. Callie didn't think anyone's eyes could be icier than Arizona's until she met the colonel.

"Daddy I have to go, but please take these documents off the table, we can talk about it later"

Callie loved it that Arizona was standing up to her father for her, even though she knew it would not be good tonight.

"I have to get back to work, but I mean it daddy relax." With that she walked off

"I love you" Callie called after her

"I know" Arizona answered back

Callie sat quietly picking at her salad and waiting for the colonel to excuse himself. He was too busy grunting and tearing at sections of his chicken wrap to notice that Callie was trying to drop a hint.

"I consider you family now Callie. When you're a father you get all these thoughts in your head for your kids you want them to be generals and then they go off to war and die. You want them to go serve their country as a medical staff member and they turn you down, so now all I want is for the one child I have left to be happy. She bought a ring a long time ago, before Private O'Malley passed."

Callie was more than stunned to hear this latest news. She was looking at this man who just a minute ago was putting the fear of god in her and now his eyes were full of pride and joy at the thought of his daughter.

"Arizona makes plans, I know because that's how I raised her. So, she's sure, and I'm sure that she's sure. My only question is are you sure?"

* * *

Back at home Arizona lay in bed waiting for Callie to get off of work. She'd taken meticulous steps to make sure they had some privacy for the night. She sent her father to a hotel room, she threatened all their friends with diaper duty if they even considered coming over. Ever since the Anderson's $25 million donation the hospital board was letting Arizona get away with almost anything so she did have the power to back up her threats.

Ten minutes later when Callie crawled in looking like a weather beaten sail Arizona had to let out a soft whimper as she watched her hopes for a sexy night slip away.

"Oh you're wearing your nighty" Callie groaned between yawns. "I'm sorry, I'm just so tired it was so long today and there were so many bones, and your dad. But I'll wake up, I can wake up for married people sex."

Callie stumbled around trying to take her work clothes off but was failing miserably until Arizona came to her aide.

"You look so good, just give me a second I'm…"

"You're going to bed" Arizona finished before Callie could interject

"No, no I can't go to bed I have to call my dad I have to tell him the…"

Arizona turned Callie toward the bed and it didn't take more than a soft shove for her to fall over on to the left side with her hair falling in a mess about her face.

"You're going to bed; my wife is going to bed." Arizona kissed Callie softly before climbing in to the covers herself. Things were a mess and not exactly what she planned, but this was still the happiest day ever for her and all she had to do was look over to her left to remember why.

* * *

I'm going to go hide under a rock because this was not your typical wedding fic and I think a few of you are going to get mad at me, but I find this story so facinating the way it's developing**.**** Review Please**


	4. Under Pressure

**AN**: Sorry in advance for the bad Spanish it's been ages

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In the morning Callie woke up to find Arizona staring at her from the left corner of the bedroom where the window was.

"You're not going to do that whole staring thing every morning are you?"

Arizona giggled at Callie's false sense of disturbance. She knew deep down Callie loved the admiration. She watched as Callie brushed the sleep out of her big brown eyes.

"You're beautiful in the morning"

It took Callie that long to realize that Arizona was still wearing her nighty. She was sitting in the wicker chair out by the bay window doing the morning cross-word in a nighty. The morning sun shun brightly down on her angelic frame and Callie lit up with a smile at the sight of it.

"What time is it?" Callie asked groggily as she wandered in to the bathroom

Arizona informed her that it was 6:30 in the morning and that they both had to be in to work in two hours. Callie knew the reason Arizona was giving such a detailed report. She fell asleep the night before and Arizona felt it was only fair that Callie make it up to her.

"Hey" Callie called out from the bathroom, "You up for a little morning glory?"

Arizona giggled a little to herself "Did you just refer to sex as morning glory?"

Callie had no idea the blonde had already snuck up behind her but she found it hilarious that Arizona was already trying to disrobe her. She momentarily caressed Arizona's neck and was overwhelmed by the soft hint of strawberries perfuming her wife.

"Wait" Callie pleaded while Arizona ignored her in favor of trying to work Callie's pajama bottoms off.

"Wait, let me get in the shower, I'll be right out and it'll be amazing just give me five minutes"

Arizona had a better idea she slipped herself out of the nighty and jumped right in to the shower pulling Callie in along with her. They were out of the shower and about to go for a third round when the phone rang. Callie wasn't going to answer it she was too busy trying not to lose her head from whatever it was Arizona was doing to her. It was clear now that Arizona had been holding out on Callie because whatever was going on had her speechless and fumbling to grip on to something. It took the voice of Callie's mother and father ranting a congratulatory reprimand over the voicemail for Callie to snap out of it. Arizona nearly toppled over as Callie bent over her backward grappling to answer the phone before her parents hung up.

"Mom, dad what's going on" Callie hastily responded. The machine had already picked up so that Arizona could hear everything that was being said, not that it helped much since half the conversation was in Spanish. But the pieces she did pick up were either amusing or just plain strange.

"Oh I see, Cousin Maria's husband's sister, ok" Arizona assumed this was the channel through which Callie's parents had heard about the impromptu nuptials.

"No, mamma it was more symbolic we still haven't done a ring ceremony" This was probably Callie responding to her mother's questioning about how she could get married for a second time without any of her family.

"mom how can you say that commo si te viven en pecado mamma?" Arizona wasn't sure what that one was about.

The conversation went on just like that while Arizona curled up against Callie waiting patiently for everything to be explained to her. She was really going to have to invest in some Spanish lessons.

"Ok, ok por la día de año nuevo"

After she'd hung up the phone Arizona gave Callie a look that was all Callie needed to know that an explanation was necessary.

"Apparently one of the new nurses is my cousin's husband's sister and my mother says that until we have a ceremony in a church we are living in sin, so…we have to go to Miami for new years."

Arizona froze in her spot. She'd already met Carlos Torres, but to have to meet the rest of Callie's family all at once in less than twenty days, she was, to be quite honest, less than enthusiastic about that. The dawn was slipping away and the sun transitioned from a gentle glow to a burning intensity that irritated Arizona's skin.

"So I think you should tell me about this ring you bought way back when." Callie continued

Arizona couldn't believe Callie found out about it, it was one of those situations she often found herself in of doing the right thing for the wrong reasons. After that first night they'd spent together after Izzy's wedding. Arizona remembered looking over to find Callie wrapped up in bed sheets spread across the bed like something out of a photo book. She felt like her heart was going to explode out of her chest and she couldn't imagine ever feeling that elated with anyone else so she ran out that second and bought a ring. She was sure she was so sure from that second on that she bought a ring and decided to wait until Callie got the attending position to propose. But then George died, and then Callie quit in quite a public fashion, so instead of proposing Arizona returned the ring.

"You bought me a ring because of Izzy's wedding?" Callie was a bit confused.

"No…I bought you a ring because I love you and I was…"

"Blinded by the amazing sex" Callie suggested

Arizona had to laugh at Callie's cocky demeanor; she didn't have the nerve to tell her how right she was.

"I'll get you another ring, a better ring, one that doesn't say dead-at-the—bottom-of –the-sea grandpa or oh my gosh you're sex is so amazing"

"I want that ring, the first one you bought; I think I'd like it a lot. So you're just going to have to go find it"

* * *

Arizona wondered if Callie knew how impossible that was; it was a custom design from a shop that closed not too long after she returned the ring. There was an old shaky man in age spots fiddling around the store and preparing to close up. When he spotted Arizona he waved her off by swatting the handle of a broom at her but Arizona was determined to get in to this specific store. Why she hadn't just bought one online was a point that only came to her days after. She took out her lip gloss and began writing on the window. It wasn't until the old man started craning his neck trying to read it that Arizona realized he was seeing it backwards. Writing that you absolutely have to propose tonight and will spare no expense is difficult enough to do in lip gloss, but try doing it backwards, but it got her in the door so to Arizona it was worth it.

"My wife, she proposed to me in 1964. Back then women weren't supposed to do that sort of thing, but I guess times have changed." The old man declared while walking Arizona toward the ring section. He had no idea how right he was, but Arizona figured some things were better left unsaid so she dropped it.

There were too many rings inside the store. There were rings with enormous rock cut diamonds centered around a band covered in tinier diamonds, there were nontraditional rings with pink, yellow, blue, and green diamonds, there was even a ring with a white gold dolphin swimming around a black pearl with diamonds for eyes. None of them seemed to fit Callie though; none of them were that perfect mix of strong, yet subtle beauty She wanted to get something that would mean a lot to both of them and it just wasn't here.

Just as Arizona was about to give up and go back home the shop keeper caught her attention, his thick Jewish accent reminded her of her undergraduate economics professor, the one who was obsessed with My Fair Lady.

"Wait, I have a ring. It's a pet project of mine, but you will love it." He had such conviction but Arizona was starting to lose faith. She paced nervously thinking she wouldn't like this particular ring either. But then she saw it, and it was beautiful. The ring was a platinum band with two interlocking circles at its center both dotted with 10K diamonds. It wasn't the typical engagement ring but it was perfect for them. She thought about their relationship and everything they had come to mean to each other. They had separate personalities for example; where Callie would run and hide and wait for things to blow over Arizona would run at things head on like a stubborn bull until she got her way. Callie couldn't go out without ordering a glass of red wine and Arizona could only tolerate white, and for the life of her Arizona could never understand Callie's taste in music. Still, they seemed to fit together naturally like the north and south ends of a magnet.

She bought the ring right away and probably would have proposed right away if Callie wasn't passed out and snoring by the time she got back to her girlfriend's apartment. Cristina was awake reading up on touch therapy and heart rates; the girl was nothing if not dedicated. Arizona could hear Callie snoring from the hall way and she plopped down on the couch in resignation. Cristina, taking a break from her reading, looked over to see the jewelry store bag sitting next to Arizona.

"You're not telling me about this." She said frankly, but not impolitely. Every second made Arizona all the more nervous about the whole thing so she ignored Cristina just this once.

"Could you look at it? Do you think she'll like it?"

"You're not telling me about this" was the only response Arizona got.

"Fine; I don't care because I'm in love which you should try by the way, it'd do wonders for your…everything." With that she curled up on the sofa and passed out with the jewelry bag tucked safely behind her.

* * *

But now the ring was gone and the store was closed. Callie looked over at Arizona with a mischievious grin.

"We've got twenty days so I guess you better get a move on" She said while giving Arizona a pat on the butt that was hard enough to jolt her up from the bed.

Later at work Callie found herself being stalked by Cristina who was begging to be let in on a surgery for one of Callie's long term patients. She'd been working with Foster for three years now and they'd developed a sort of brother-sister relationship over those years. He'd been the one person she could go to to remind her of how sexy and amazing she was when George was busy drooling over Izzy, he was the only person other than Mark she ever really told about Erica, and now she had to operate on him once again. Foster suffered from brittle bone disease and had to come in often for check -ups and repairs. Two days ago he was riding to the store with his wife when she slammed on the breaks to avoid hitting a biker. Unfortunately for Foster his entire body jolted forward with the seatbelt pressing excessively against his upper left ribs and breast plate. Normally Cristina wouldn't care about any of this except that his collapsed rib was placing heavy pressure on his heart and there was a chance of cardiac muscle tissue damage which meant there was a chance a repair might be needed.

"Hey Dr. Torres" Foster spoke with a labored voice

"Foster, you ready for surgery today?" Callie inquired.

Cristina managed to finagle her way in to the room, but Callie was holding strong on not allowing her anywhere near the OR.

"Why won't you let me in on this?" She bemoaned in a not too quiet whisper to Callie

"Because you knew about the ring" Callie whispered back.

Cristina furrowed her brow is confusion but then relaxed once the realization dawned on her. Speaking aloud now she took the opportunity to try and clear things up.

"I did not know about a ring, I knew about a jewelry bag. There could have been anything in there."

Foster looked amused at the back and forth between the two former roomies

"Cal, are you still freaked about the pin-rod wedding?" he asked still labored but with an amused whimsy.

"Pin-rod wedding, dude that is classic." Cristina giggled

"Marriage is amazing Cal, it's like having a toy you never get tired of and a blanket that always keeps you warm no matter how cold it gets." This was Foster's attempt at words of wisdom. Callie knew he was right but the little part of her that was still hesitant made it difficult to concede.

"What do you know, you're warm blanket just cracked you're ribs" she snapped. Callie didn't bother apologizing, she knew Foster would understand.

"Yeah, well you're wife…" Cristina was ready to offer up some smart comment Callie was sure of that, but she was swiftly interrupted.

"Is standing right behind you." Foster announced. Both Callie and Cristina turned around to find Arizona leaned up against the door frame doing her best inconspicuous look.

"ya know, you really shouldn't sneak up on people like that." A startled Cristina declared. Arizona simply waved her off in typical fashion. A little part of her was happy she'd picked up on some of her father's techniques because seeing the look on Yang's face made it totally worth it.

"Just shush before I change my mind about this." Arizona snapped but not rudely.

"Change your mind about what?" Callie found herself wondering out loud

"Let Yang in on the surgery." Arizona asked in the way Callie had become accustomed to. She knew Arizona wasn't asking so much as telling her to do it.

"Fine, but why?" She figured if she was going to do it she at least deserved some clarification.

"Because if you don't she'll keep pestering you until you do and then I won't be able to take you out for lunch because she won't leave you alone." Arizona explained

"I think I'm going to like your married life a lot." Cristina declared with her closest approximation of a smile

Callie found herself sweating, had Arizona found the ring already, why else would they have to go to lunch today, regardless she put on a smile and agreed. In the back of her mind Callie hoped there would be no lunch time proposal though. It was hard to admit but in a lot of ways Callie was like her mother, even though she didn't need a piece of paper, for her the marriage wasn't anything more than symbolic until they said it in front of God and family. As Arizona skipped away Cristina took the opportunity to make an observation of Callie.

"Pin-rod wedding has you fer-eaked!"

"Yup." Came Callie's tired reply.

* * *

So, this chapter was a bit of a surprise to meI hope Callie doesn't come off the wrong way but she's nervous y'all. PS I'm mad at myself because I started boiling water for rice and walked away to work on this, two and a half hours later my house smells like smoke and my pot is ruined**.**** Review Please**


	5. Father Figure

OMG its been so long, I am sorry but life gets in the way. you know the drill. Well this one's short with longer ones to follow soon, hope you like it and if so please comment and let me know.

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Thinking back to the time when Callie was living with Cristina Arizona remembered the way she felt being held in Callie's arms clinging on to her girlfriend for dear life. That morning after her night with Bette was excessively tortuous for her; she thought she'd never survive it. She thought about how calmly Callie stroked her hair that morning, even after the betrayal Callie stayed strong and comforted Arizona. Thinking about it left her feeling flush with reminders of her selfish behavior. Not only had she cheated, but instead of comforting Callie she let the burden fall on the person she loved most. Arizona was still perplexed as to how Callie had managed to stay calm during such a turbulent situation; she hated herself then and she wanted Callie to hate her too. Callie is a proud, strong person, she doesn't like to cry in front of others but given the level of betrayal Arizona thought perhaps tears were warranted. Still, she got nothing, not tears, not angry words, no physical pain, nothing except for a comforting embrace.

Now she sat across from this beautiful woman staring in to her big brown eyes and being mesmerized by her smile. She couldn't believe she would get to spend the rest of her life with such an amazing person, but even more the love of her life. It shocked Arizona to admit it, but Callie truly was the love of her life and the most amazing person she could ever hope to meet. Looking at her watch and then up to a confused Callie she realized she must have been daydreaming for quite some time without even bothering to tell Callie why she'd called her out to lunch.

"Sorry, I just got caught up for a second."

Callie held Arizona's hand from under the table and was now stroking her fingers to assuage the apparent nervousness. After thinking about everything she'd put Callie through she was now thinking of changing her mind about making a request. Even though it had been a while since the affair Arizona couldn't help the feelings of guilt that crept up every now and again. Yet, here she was about to commit another selfish act and make a request she felt she felt she had no right to make. The thing though is that Callie was now her wife and that was a game changer for Arizona; it meant she got to make ridiculous requests without explanations and that Callie would actually have to consider them. Here she was taking another long pause, but Callie didn't seem to mind she waited patiently and took the silence as a time to enjoy her food and Arizona's company.

"I need to ask you to do something" Arizona finally started. She shot her eyes up from the table they had been dutifully focused on and looked up to observe Callie who was stiff with anticipation.

"Is it about the ring?" Callie questioned with a hint of concern in her voice.

"No, no" Arizona assured her, "It's, I need you to talk to me." She finished.

This latest demand left Callie clearly perplexed. What in the world was up with Arizona? Ever since the wedding she'd been acting a little differently. It was as if she was trying to prove something to herself or to Callie. She was more assertive, more involved, and overly coupley. For example she insisted that they drive to work together whenever possible, she would rearrange Callie's schedule without so much as a word, and she even sent Callie to bed the other night when she'd stayed up reading.

"I need you to talk to me when you're sad, or mad, or confused. I need you to not be scared to share your fears with me; you're my wife. I need you to come to me instead of other people when it involves our marriage. I need you Callie, so that's what I'm asking you to do for me."

Arizona could barely look in to Callie's eyes without turning away, she was too nervous which was new, Arizona had never been nervous around Callie before. That's when Callie saw it; Arizona turned for a brief second and Callie caught a glimpse of her steely blue eyes and the look in them was as if Arizona were having an uncomfortable conversation with her father. Callie tried to tell herself that marriage wouldn't change anything but looking at her wife now shaking before her like a wounded lamb she knew that wasn't the truth. Callie couldn't believe she spent so much time selfishly fretting over what all this would mean for her, it was now clear that she wasn't the only nervous one

"Oh my god, Arizona I'm not your father and I'm not the chief. I'm your wife" The admission shocked her it was the first time Callie made the statement out loud. "And I'm nervous too" she added.

Arizona was so beautiful even when she was crying. Callie loved how her lip quivered whenever she tried to hold back her tears.

"I was in an on call room talking to Mark when I should have been talking to you; I just didn't want to scare you."

They sat and stared at the food for a while more then they silently agreed that it was time to go. They'd only been gone for a little while but they were moved by a mutual need that had to be satisfied. It was the blue of her eyes, it was the warmth of her smile, it was her quirky overconfidence, it was everything Callie ever wanted in a person that she never thought she could have. Arizona inspired the best parts of Callie and she kept all her worst traits at bay. Arizona leaned over to Callie's ear as they walked out of the deli.

"Je t'aime, Je t'aime, plus que moi-même je t'aime" She whispered. It was Arizona's favorite movie quote from one of the many French film-noir movies Arizona collected in her video library. Callie never understood how someone could watch those space-trippy French movies without being shrooming first, but Arizona loved them. Callie remembered the first time she watched Belle De Jour luckily she was able to stay focused thanks to the amazingly sexy Catherine Deneuve, but my goodness she thought she might lose it during the scene where the men go fox hunting it was a total WTF for Callie. So one night when Arizona brought home brought home yet another artsy flick full of symbolic mind-fuckery Callie hoped there would be something to hold her over but nothing of the sort. Arizona could admit the movie, A Curtain Raiser, was a little melodramatic but it was worth it just for that line. Knowing what it meant made it worth it for Callie too.

"I love you too" she replied.

Callie hadn't been back at work for more than an hour before someone managed to take her blissful glee and turn it in to anxious trepidation. She was glad that Arizona's dad was done with his conference and had gone back home to San Diego. She could finally relax and enjoy her home with Arizona the way she wanted to without worrying that Daddy Robbins would randomly pop in on them with more paper work and speeches. Suddenly she was being yanked in to an on-call room by someone who moved too swiftly for Callie to take notice of their identity. It shouldn't have surprised her to turn around and see Mark Sloan staring her down, but it did.

"Mark no more secret chit-chat. I'm a married woman now, so when you want to talk, we have to talk in public" She exclaimed before Mark could even get a word out.

"Trust me Torres; you're going to want some privacy for this." Mark insisted. He seemed very sure of himself, but then Mark was always very sure of himself. But Callie was insistent on respecting Arizona's wishes so she opened the door and marched half way through it, that's as far as she could get before Mark blurted out his latest information.

"Your mother is here."

That was all it took for Callie to turn straight back in to the room slamming the door behind her.


	6. Witchy Woman

**AN**: Hi, everyone, so I guess it's been ages since an update. I won't blame anyone for not even reading this anymore. I got distracted with the real world (you know how that goes) Well, I hope all is well with anyone still reading this and even those who aren't or may be in the future; Okay, I hope all is well in the whole world. This chapter is a bit odd, but please see it threw cause it'll turn out to be very important.

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That was all it took for Callie to turn straight back in to the room slamming the door behind her.

When she finally emerged, her head ringing from all the thoughts she'd been processing, the only function she could manage to perform normally was walking. So, that's exactly what she did; she walked all the way to the visitors lobby picked up an expired copy of Highlights and attempted to navigate her way through one of the maze puzzles in the games section. It wasn't that Callie didn't love her mother, it was just that her mom was much too much. Everything had to be discussed in minute detail and harped on to the point of absurdity. When Mrs. Torres finally managed to wrap her head around Callie's relationship with Arizona, she wanted to know everything from Arizona's shoe size to whether or not Callie found her satisfying…sexually. It was just too much and today was not the day for Callie to have to deal with any of it.

Besides, what was her mother doing here in Seattle? They were going to be in Miami in a few weeks, why couldn't it wait till then? Callie didn't want to think about it anymore, in fact she didn't want to think about anything anymore, she just wanted to sit there doing simple children's puzzles until it all went away. Unfortunately, in Callie's confused state, she'd neglected to realize she was sitting in the visitors lobby of the peds department. Really it should have made sense with all the old copies of Highlights and Tiger Beat strewn about. But Callie was to busy not thinking to even make the connection at least not until an unusually peppy Arizona came wheeling up to her.

"Hey, come to pay me a visit?" Arizona asked happily.

"What? No!" Callie declared before looking up from her magazine and realizing who she was talking to.

"Sorry, I'm just avoiding my mother." She explained.

Arizona's face lit up again "Oh, Ana? I met her, she's sweet, she brought me candles. She say's they help with my clogged ears. When did you tell her about that?"

"I didn't tell her, she yanked it out of me with her constant nagging, nagging that I can not handle today"

Arizona couldn't help the joyous expression illuminating her face at the moment; she was reveling in the realization that Callie was just like her mother, right down to the nagging. She also knew she couldn't breathe a word of this to Callie because she would just deny it and storm off in righteous indignation.

"relax, she's only here for a few hours. She's on an extended layover to Vancouver. Apparently your aunt Celia's dog Betsy died and they decided to throw together a last minute funeral." Arizona stated the explanation without incident as if it just made the most sense ever, she was already getting used to Callie's crazy family.

"How do you know this and I don't? You just met her!" Callie was getting a little uneasy about Arizona's apparent fondness for her mother.

"Ana tends to ramble, kind of like…"

"Don't, don't say it or so help me I'll, I'll do something really bad."

Arizona leaned down and gave Callie a peck on the cheek.

"Don't worry, I sent her home… to our home, and I'll drive her to the airport when the time comes"

Arizona skipped away smiling back as Callie peered at her from behind her magazine. Once she'd seen that Arizona was out of view she picked up her things and walked confidently back to the ortho unit. Callie was beginning to like married life if it meant Arizona would always know exactly what she needed and today she needed to avoid her mother completely, even if she was only in town for a few hours. Ana Torres was insufferable at her worst and harebrained at best. With the impending nuptials it only stood to reason that Ana would be pestering her daughter about the planning and whether or not they had found a friendly minister, if it would be in or out door, how many people from Arizona's family would be in attendance, and what Arizona planned on doing with her hair because god forbid she wear pigtails to a wedding.

There was a new ortho fellow that had been following Callie around like a lost puppy for the past few weeks. She kind of reminded Callie of George, but mostly she just annoyed. Callie thought back to the first day Richard told her she'd be assisting a new fellow. Needless to say Callie was irate, she had her own research to worry about and no time to babysit an out-of-towner that would be gone in a flash and quickly forgotten. After reluctantly agreeing to host this mysterious person, Callie went on about her day happily prepping her patients for surgery and doing some double checking on a research project she'd been putting off. Everything was running smoothly until mid way through a patient consult she was interrupted by a fiery red head in a lab coat.

"Hey Dr. Torres, I…"

Callie cut her off swiftly, she was already agitated "You're the fellow right? I'll meet up with you on my lunch break. You should save your questions till then. Also, for future reference, it's bad practice to interrupt a doctor in the middle of a consult."

Callie couldn't help but take delight in the look of pure bewilderment dawning the other woman's face. She was relieved to see her turning on her heels, but shocked when half way down the hall the woman doubled back and returned. Standing in the door way hand hoisted to her hip, The woman looked ready to give Callie a good talking to.

"For future reference, my name's Dr. Samantha Bowen something you might need when you're roaming the halls at lunch time trying to find me. Also, I'm sorry I interrupted you're consult." With that Dr. Bowen turned around once more and left. This time Callie was the one standing with her mouth agape.

That was their first interaction, and it would prove to be predictive of many other disastrous encounters between the two. Today was especially tough though because Callie's mind was already preoccupied with avoiding her mother and trying to figure out if Arizona had found her ring yet; she took solace in the fact that she hadn't seen Dr. Samantha Bowen all day. Just when she thought she'd found something to be happy about, in walked Dr. Samantha Bowen and her endless stream of silky red hair; Callie was beginning to hate red heads, even Lea Thompson.

"Dr. Torres, I hear you got married since last I was here" Samantha leaned against the nurse's desk as if she needed to rest from the fatigue of dragging out that last sentence. "I suppose congratulations are in order, perhaps we should celebrate by letting me observe one of the ACL repairs I see you have scheduled for today" Samantha offered.

"I'm sorry, we only let real doctors in the OR." Callie retorted disingenuously feigning regret.

"My research is what's responsible for the instruments you use in that OR, my research saves lives and I think that puts me a little higher on the totem pole than a glorified carpenter." Samantha reasoned.

Callie knew it was a low blow, but she couldn't help it. When she'd Googled Samantha and found out that the woman got her doctorate in medical engineering and instrumentation, it made for a good many laughs around the cafeteria. It's not like anyone forced her to wear that stupid lab coat everywhere, or constantly introduce herself giving a full title; the woman was begging to be made fun of.

"My hands are what saves lives, but whatever if you need to observe be in OR 4 at six, that's six and do not bring anything with you."

After that less than thrilling encounter, Callie really needed to find Arizona. She'd promised to go to Arizona first when she needed support and this was the perfect opportunity to prove that she could do it. She did, however, decide to wait till five so that She'd have something positive to go into the OR with. In the mean time it was back to checking on her research.

Lexie was Callie's resident today which was sometimes good and sometimes bad depending on the younger Grey's mood.

"I got those articles you were looking for, and I summarized them with cover letters highlighting all the important details." Lexie blurted without so much as a breath.

"You read all these in three hours, and typed papers?" Callie questioned.

"Your surgeries aren't till late, I've already done rounds, and I got bored" Lexie explained. "Plus I have a photographic memory so that helps."

"Right, thanks" Callie conceded, she'd forgotten about the whole lexapeida thing. After reaching out and grabbing the stack of articles Lexie was offering, Callie noticed that the young resident was not letting go of them.

"What are you doing?" Callie asked both confused and irritated.

"Don't send me back out there" Lexie pleaded.

"What? Why?" came Callie's still confused response.

Lexie looked up at Callie sharing a knowing glance and motioned her head toward the door.

"That woman is out there, she out there measuring people and asking strange questions like when's the last time I went to the bathroom. I know it's for her research and that the hospital is backing her, but…but I just spent the last thirty minutes being groped by her in the name of science. I need a break and she won't back off. She's like a fiery red ant that won't stop biting."

Usually Callie would use this little rant from Lexie as a teachable moment and offer her some words of wisdom, but on the issue of the fiery red ant that had infested the ortho wing, Callie was of the same mind as Lexie.

###

Arizona slammed her laptop shut with so much force the sound of it echoed all over the pediatric unit. She contemplated the possibility of being able to recreate the ring from memory, but she knew she could never do it justice. She'd finally resigned to the possibility that she wouldn't be able to give Callie a ring. Sulking in her chair, she opened her chart folder to make sure Avery had filed them correctly. She'd also been fielding calls from Callie's mother all day, and trying to find a decent dress to wear in Miami for New Years. Sometimes she wished she could undo the whole thing, but when she thought about it the whole mess was her idea, her mess, and really deep down she knew she loved the chaos. By the time five-o'clock rolled around she was so exhausted that the site of Callie strolling in was less exciting to her than the two cups of coffee she brought with her.

Grabbing one and tossing half of it back in a giant swig, Arizona manages to swing around her desk and give Callie a peck on the cheek.

"You know me so well, which is why I married you by the way. That, and the hot sex." Arizona graciously enthused. "Thank you."

"Oh, so I'm only good for coffee and sex?" Callie joked

"yup!" Arizona mocked right back.

Callie reached out to stroke Arizona's hand. She noticed that it was prancing up and down on the desk like reindeer hooves. It definitely was not going to be a good night tonight.

"I think we're both a little stressed out" Callie observed. "You want to take a walk with me? Maybe some fresh air will help calm us down."

Arizona loved the way Callie spoke about them collectively, Callie wasn't stressed, and she wasn't stressed, they were stressed together. Somehow that slight difference made everything ok to Arizona. She knew they were both going to figure it out together. Still she was a little confused about what had Callie so tied up.

"Hey, a walk sounds nice, but I thought you were okay after we talked earlier."

Callie looked up. For a second she contemplated making something up, only for a second though.

"I, there's this doctor Webber threw at me out of nowhere and she's sort of slowing my whole department down. I don't know what to do about it. The board just keeps telling me to tolerate her." Callie explained.

Arizona couldn't help the giggle forming inside her head. She'd been waiting for Callie to say something about Dr. Bowen for ages now.

"The red head that looks like Lea Thompson in Howard the Duck?" Arizona questioned.

Callie looked confused. Her right eyebrow shot up in suspicion. "How did you know that?"

"There's a hot new red headed researcher roaming around my wife's office, how would I not know?" Arizona teased.

"Mark told you didn't he?" Callie asked with a hint of insistence.

"I believe his exact words were _there's some hot redhead in ortho that looks like Callie's wet dream_" Arizona admitted. Sometimes she liked having Mark around, although she'd never tell

anyone that.

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**Thank you all for reading, please comment and let me know what you thought good or bad :)**


	7. What You Won't Do For Love

**AN**: Ok, really quick update. See, I really do plan on finishing this one.

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Callie couldn't help sneaking little kisses Arizona's way as they walked down the sidewalk toward an open air market. She pointed to a little bench they were approaching that was hidden behind a hill and just under a small bridge. That was their bench, not that they owned it, but they always went there when they wanted some privacy.

"No thank you" Arizona firmly stated, to Callie's surprise. "We're suppose to be talking things out about Miami and your mother and the crazy red head lady"

"Dr. Samantha Bowen." Callie corrected.

"Right, well I can't talk it out with you on that bench, we don't talk on that bench" Arizona explained.

Callie couldn't help the rush of hormones that was coming over her as she watched Arizona bite down on her bottom lip. That was Arizona's version of a "thinking" face and Callie's idea of a come-on. Finally managing to break her stare Callie cleared her throat to speak.

"My mother is in our house, your father is staying in a hotel down the street, and we have been seriously lacking in the sex department." She reasoned. "It's perfectly acceptable for you to be freaking out right now."

Callie placed her hand flat on Arizona's back and started rubbing in circles waiting to feel her back muscles relaxing into her palm.

"It's not just that" Arizona admitted. "We're supposed to be in Miami in fifteen days and I don't even know all of your brothers names, I mean I know you told me, but there are five of them Callie. Plus Aria who I've never met, but you make her sound like a pit-bull"

"She's a divorce attorney, of course she's a pit-bull." Callie confirmed, which only seemed to make things worse.

"She's a what? You didn't tell me she was a divorce…she'll be worse than my dad. I should get her something nice for Christmas then, Oh god I haven't even done Christmas shopping or found a dress, or…I need a cigarette."

Arizona was falling on the verge of insanity and tears and despite the cuteness of the whole thing, Callie couldn't let her continue rambling off in a paranoid panic.

"Hey, look at me, look" she held Arizona's chin up to meet her eyes. "We are going to be fine. Aria she's not so bad, she's like Cristina except with a law degree. She'll be cordial as long as you don't refer to her as Torres, her father's last name is Sanchez. My brothers are all on my dad's side and they're cool as long as you can talk cars and football with them." Callie took a minute to breath, she was still rubbing circles around Arizona's back, and it was starting to feel like the blond was finally relaxing.

"I mean, you already like my mother and she's the worst of them."

Arizona looked up incredulously at Callie "Have you met your father?" Arizona protested.

"Um, you're talking about the man who bought me a jewel incrusted thrown for my eight birthday, sorry if my opinion is a little biased" Callie explained.

Arizona ran her fingers through Callie's long chocolate locks, stopping every so often to nuzzle into her wife's gorgeous mane. They'd been walking through a public garden not too far from the market and decided to stop when Callie spotted an ice-cream cart and got all giddy like a school girl at the thought of ice-cream in the park.

"Now it's your turn" Arizona proclaimed. "The red head doctor lady you've been tossing and turning over?"

"Dr. Samantha Bowen." Callie corrected with mock enthusiasm .

"Callie are you sure all this hostility isn't because secretly you really like her?" The proposition seemed to roll off Arizona's tongue as if it were no big deal at all.

"What? No, I can't stand, no one in ortho can stand her and even Lexie Grey, the girl who falls in love with everything and everyone, cannot stand Dr. Bowen. She's just all sorts of wrong. Eek!"

Arizona quietly resigned to the fact that Callie was too stubborn to admit liking Dr. Bowen. She couldn't help the small upward turn her lips were taking, which Callie quickly caught on to.

"No, do not; I know what you are trying to do and you're wrong. The woman is stubborn and a smart-alic; she's a know-it-all that won't leave me alone. Also, she's perky and a dork; she's a perky dork and…"

"Sounds exactly like me" Arizona cut in.

Callie, still adamant about her detest of all things Bowen, was determined to prove to Arizona how illogical her reasoning was.

"No, she's not like you. You're cute and fun and an amazing kisser."

Arizona's eyes shot up at that last confession from Callie, she'd have been more shocked if she wasn't terribly distracted by the site of Callie licking an ice-cream cone.

"How do you know what kind of kisser she is?" Arizona teased.

"I don't, but she has bird lips and looks like she'd spend a lot of time pecking at people." Callie explained which led to Arizona nodding her approval that pecking was never good.

"Ok, well answer me this; does she really look like Lea Thompson?" Arizona asked while wrapping her free hand around Callie as they walked back to the hospital. She watched the other woman's facial muscles contort the way they usually did when she was having trouble with a thought in her head.

"Yup, you like her. I think you like her, but because we got married, and because you don't want to hurt me you are trying very hard not to like her. It's ok, I give you permission to like her" Arizona declared.

"But I…" Callie began

"you know I'm right" Arizona assured her as they approached the hospital doors. "Just go rock your surgery, and try not to drool in front of the hot new researcher." She stood in the hall watching as Callie scampered off to her surgery still processing everything Arizona had said.

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After talking with Arizona Callie's surgery seemed to fly by without a hitch. She just had to be adult enough to admit that she had a bit of a girl-crush that she had no motivation to act on, but there was nothing wrong with it all the same. Lexie actually did most of the work with Callie there supervising and holding the spacers in place. She knew Lexie tested well, but she was often surprised at how well rounded she was in the OR. That was the sign of a future general surgeon usually, but Lexie's heart was set on plastics. Dr. Bowen sat off to the side scribbling notes in her note pad in a fury.

Everything was great until later in the scrub room when Callie was scrubbing out and trying to shake the cramp out of her working hand. She repetitively bent her fingers back and forth contracting them in an effort to loosen them. Lexie did her own little flexing routine and Dr. Bowen looked on observing the flexing routine and jotting even more notes into her journal.

"Do you always flex your hands that way after surgery?" Dr. Bowen finally inquired.

"I don't know, I guess" Callie said after giving it some thought.

Samantha scribbled a bit more in her journal.

"You , Dr. Grey do you usually flex like that after surgery?" she continued.

"Not really, it's more of an ortho thing" Lexie reasoned.

This led to Dr. Bowen staring at Callie's hands for an awkward amount of time. It made Lexie so uneasy she rushed to finish and dashed out of the room in fear that her hands would be next.

"What?" Callie demanded, startling Dr. Bowen out of her train of thought.

"Is, do you mind if I take a look at them?" Dr. Bowen nervously suggested.

Callie was reluctant to comply, but in the spirit of adultness and adult-like behavior she offered over her hand to the persistent redhead. Samantha cupped her hand like a puppet so that her four fingers lay flat over top of Callie's hand and her thumb rested underneath pressing against Callie's palm.

"Flex your fingers up and down please" she requested. "I'm going to rotate your hand as you do this, just continue to flex and let me know if you need to rest your hand."

Callie did as she was told, moving her fingers up and down as Samantha pressed at different points along her palm and rotated her hand in all different directions. After about five minutes she let go and picked her notebook back up jotting down even more notes. Callie was getting a little paranoid, she couldn't tell if what just happened was slightly erotic or not. She decided to remind herself that it was for research purposes and that she was an adult who was perfectly capable of conducting research without freaking out.

"How's your hand?" Samantha inquired without even looking up from her notes.

"Better, thanks." Callie admitted. "You do that with all the doctors in Orthopedics?" Callie inquired.

Samantha grabbed her notes and headed toward the door. "Nope, just you." she finally responded before skipping away. Callie followed shortly after determined to find Arizona to help settle her mind. She was so zoned in she hardly noticed Mark standing just outside the ortho wing waiting to walk to the parking lot with Callie.

* * *

Callie found Arizona in the library doing what she presumed was research on her computer. She was a little thrown off though by how quickly Arizona shut her computer at the sight of Callie. She didn't care though, Callie was a woman on a mission.

"Hey are you headed out? I can walk you to your car if you want." Arizona offered.

"No, stay" Callie insisted. " I was kind of hoping we could talk before I head out"

Arizona looked up, a little concerned about what more there could be to discuss today. "What about?"

"I don't know" Callie admitted," I guess I was sort of hoping you would hold me for a while. You know when we get home we're going to have my mom to deal with so there will be no sex and I miss the sex."

Callie plopped into a chair next to Arizona and let her wife run her fingers through her hair. Eventually Arizona was sucking a trail down Callie's neck stopping just short of her collar bone.

"We could stay here, and I could hold you, but I'm pretty sure the third floor on-call room is a better solution to our little problem." Arizona declared.

By the time they got up to the third floor on-call room Arizona was ready to rip Callie's clothes off. They made it about two steps into the room before she finally did just that. A moved which caused a startled Callie to giggle with excitement.

"Where'd you learn how to do that?" Callie sighed in a breathy whisper.

"You learn to move quickly on a military base" Arizona explained while motioning for Callie to help her hold her hands up over her head so that she could make quick work of her own clothes. "very quickly."

Callie pounced on Arizona grabbing hold of that bottom lip that had been tempting her earlier in the day. She quickly turned her over kissing and sucking down her wife's neck to the center of her back.

"I was thinking about the redhead." Arizona suddenly announced.

"No, no, no!" Callie insisted "No thinking It's bad for your head"

"I was thinking" Arizona continued in between gasps as Callie was reluctant to break away long enough for Arizona to complete a sentence. "I could get a red wig, put on some heels, and let you spank me."

Callie was suddenly intrigued "You wouldn't let me spank you" Callie laughed off the idea.

Arizona cocked an eyebrow lowering her head so that Callie's perfectly perky breast were directly in her line of vision. "you have no idea the things I'd let you do" She seductively drawled before finally relenting and easing Callie out of her bra.

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**Please read, Please Review. I am not ashamed to beg! :)**


	8. Single Ladies Put a ring on it

**AN**: Here's the latest chapter, I have school work and general life issues to think about. So it may take me a while to hammer this out.

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It had been two weeks, two blissful weeks of work and sex and other fun things. Arizona was starting to think she switched lives with another person because things were just too good. Callie was on her A game hitting off surgeries like they were second grade math problems and coming home most nights ready for celebratory rounds of nightly fun. There were no dying children anywhere in sight, which, as a pediatric surgeon , always made Arizona happy. Still, sometimes, when she least expected it, Arizona got caught up with feelings of guilt. She was the one who'd cheated, even if it was a long while ago; the guilt never really left. That's why she was so happy for Callie's little work place crush, she figured she deserved it and if all she had to do was put up with a little unintentional flirtation, she could do it. At least that's what she told herself. She hadn't exactly had the opportunity to meet Dr. Samantha Bowen, and she wasn't planning on having to either.

They'd managed to get their parents back home without much of a hiccup, though there was a minor situation when Callie's mom decided to water Arizona's plants…in her bath robe…in the middle of the day…right as her dad was coming over for a farewell luncheon. She felt very motivated to right a strongly worded letter to the manufacturers of loosely fitted bathrobes, but then she remembered that Callie, like her mother, had a proclivity for nakedness. Thank God for Ana Torres-Sanchez-Wright. She was finally beginning to relax when she realized that she had no time to relax. They'd be leaving for Miami in less than three days and she hadn't found Callie's ring. She'd completely forgotten to find the damn ring.

She was seated at the nurses desk in the peds wing trying to find a patient file Keptner had supposedly dropped off for her.

"Why am I even doing this!" She exclaimed to no one in particular. "There should be interns or a resident, Keptner! Where is Keptner?" She found herself shouting in frenzied panic.

Avery happened to be trolling for surgeries and decided to try and needle his way in to whatever Arizona was doing.

"April's in ortho trying to get a consult for you three thirty but if you need someone…" Before he could finish Arizona was storming out of peds and making a mad dash for the orthopedics wing. "I'm available" Jackson mumbled in resigned disappointment.

She walked in to see April sipping a coffee and chit-chatting about corn and Iowa or some other state where ever she was from.

"Keptner did I ask you to get a consult?" Arizona demanded. The question startled April who spun around and stood stuttering before Arizona. "Did I ask you to get a consult?" Arizona repeated.

"Dr. Robbins I…I just thought I should uh come down here and get a consult because you seemed busy."

Arizona was about to lose it, she really was having trouble understanding this girl and she was not known for her patience. Lucky for April, Callie showed up and saved the day. Grabbing Arizona by the arm and pulling her away, Callie tried to calm Arizona down.

"Hey, what's wrong, you've got a nine year old with fractured wrist possible signs of abuse right?"

Arizona nodded her head in confirmation.

"So she came down here to get a consult, that's initiative, maybe misguided initiative but it's initiative all the same."

Arizona rolled her eyes at Callie's logic, she hated to admit when she was wrong, which was rarely by the way.

"She's sipping coffee and talking up some doctor I've never seen before, why would she get a consult from a doctor I don't even know?" Arizona was determined to remain upset.

"Um, that's not the consult, I'm the consult." Callie reluctantly admitted. "April was on her way out and Dr. Bowen just sort of pounced on her, but it turns out April is exactly what we needed down here. We've haven't been this productive in weeks."

Arizona couldn't help but giggle at Callie's overenthusiastic glee. "Want me to leave her down here? Maybe they'll run off together and live happily ever after, making orthopedic tools in some cornfield in Nebraska."

Both Callie and Arizona had a good chuckle at the thought of that. While they were still mid laugh, Arizona felt a tap on her shoulder.

"Sorry to interrupt, I don't think we've met." Arizona turned to see this doctor that had so captivated her wife. When she finally caught hold of who was talking to her, she was more than a little taken aback.

"Hi, I'm Dr. Samantha…" Dr. Bowen froze at the sight of Arizona.

"Dr. Samantha Woodson" Arizona finished.

Callie was struggling to put the pieces together but she gathered that they knew each other. She watched as Arizona toyed nervously with a lose curl of hair. The sun was to their backs and shining directly on to Dr. Bowen as if specifically designed to radiate her flawless and cream colored skin.

"Arizona Robbins? I haven't seen you since Hopkins. Well it's a small world isn't it?" Samantha gleefully perked.

Now Callie knew they'd gone to med school together. There was some obvious tension, but both women were painstakingly avoiding the big fat monkey in the room, even if it was scratching at the walls and jumping in everyone's faces. An oblivious April grabbed her patient file and thought it a good time to clear up some medical discrepancies with Arizona.

"Um, Dr. Robbins, sorry for the delay but I think if…"

"Not now Keptner." Arizona demanded.

"So" Arizona continued, singling in on Samantha, "when did you get a divorce?"

"two years ago almost" Samantha happily professed.

Arizona had heard enough she could barely process everything that was going on today much less stomach it. Turning on her heel she faced the door to leave, but gave Callie a quick peck before doing so. She was marking her territory, she knew it and Callie knew it.

"Come on Keptner, there's work to do." Arizona declared without even turning back to ensure the resident had heard her.

How do you tell the person you love that you're jealous, especially when you've been acting like it was no big deal for a while now. Arizona couldn't help it she imagined Callie skipping through the halls with Samantha at her tail. She'd be shamelessly making up excuses to run her fingers through Callie's hair. On top of all that she couldn't find the stupid ring and every time April asked her if she should be palming the instrument it reminded her of palm trees which reminded her of Miami, which was less than three days away. The whole day had gone from brilliantly wonderful, to a messy disaster in a matter of minutes. To make matters worse she had April for a resident, and the girl just did not seem to know when to leave well enough alone.

They were in the middle of a tonsillectomy and Arizona had been kind enough to let April take lead on the procedure.

"So, you knew Dr. Bowen?" April quipped in an effort to start conversation.

"We are in the middle of a surgery Dr. Bowen could you try and focus on the patient."

April turned her eyes back to the patient, she looked like someone had just stolen her puppy. "It's Dr. Keptner, but that's ok. I guess I'm not the only one loosing focus today."

Great, Arizona thought, she'd just been one-uped by April Keptner.

April was palming her scalpel flipping it back and forth the way surgeons are taught to do for even cutting. Arizona tried to focus on the technique and ensure that the resident was performing correctly. She noticed that Keptner had a habit of stopping just after switching direction on a cut and redirecting her hand to the opposite side of the blade. So she made sure to teach her the palm technique before working with her today. Now though, she was beginning to regret it. April had not only mastered the move, she was using it even when she didn't need to. Palm, palm trees, Miami, wedding ring, that was the order of Arizona's thoughts. She could not wait for this day to end.

Callie had to work late and instructed Arizona to drive home alone which she really didn't want to do. She wanted to wait around the ortho wing and make sure Dr. Bowen wasn't making a move on Callie. She wanted to fall asleep in an on-call room and wait for Callie to wake her up so they could drive home together. What she did not want to do was go home and sit in her paranoid state waiting for Callie and wondering what she and Dr. Bowen were up to. But, she did it anyway because Callie had this ridiculously beautiful smile when she asked and it totally mesmerized her.

It was a struggle to keep occupied while Callie was still at work, but she'd finally settled on vegging out on the sofa and watching I Love Lucy reruns. She was mid way through the episode where they all decided to start a restaurant when the door flew open.

"Honey, I'm home." Callie said without even noticing what was on the television. Arizona turned it off and sat up trying to clean up and pretend she'd actually done something productive. Callie came over to stop her.

"Leave it, it's fine." She insisted. "Sit, I'm tired but I'm not going to bed until we get this Samantha thing worked out."

Arizona looked up in surprise; Callie wasn't exactly the type to address things head on.

"Who is she? Is she an ex or…"

Arizona quickly cut her off "She's not an ex, she's uh she was like Mark"

Now Callie was confused, but Arizona continued.

"At Hopkins we were inseparable. We did everything together which was great. I wasn't exactly everyone's cup of tea. It was competitive and I was the person everyone wanted to knock down."

Callie placed a hand around Arizona's waist, She loved the way Arizona relaxed into her touch.

"She was your best friend?"

"Yeah, and she was married to this guy in our program. I mean he was nice, but not exactly the brightest bulb."

Arizona rested her head against Callie's shoulder. "So, that last year we were looking for fellowships and I was going to Mass Gen, I mean everyone knew it was a sure thing. Samantha got into an orthopedics program at Cleveland. We were so excited, but um…Alton, her husband at the time he didn't get accepted to any of the programs. After that, Samantha just changed."

Just thinking about it, was starting to give Arizona a head ache. She didn't know if she was ready to explain the whole thing to Callie. She hadn't really said much and Arizona was worried she'd already freaked her out. Callie's hand had slowly crept up the back of Arizona's shirt so that a few of her fingers rested just over Arizona's bra strap.

"What are you thinking?" Arizona implored.

Callie lifted her head a bit and gave Arizona a reassuring smile. "I'm thinking about my mother and how she's back in Miami telling everyone how great you are, and I'm thinking about us being a family together, even if we just have a few chickens and a dog." Callie smiled and looked back at Arizona, but she didn't like what she saw.

Arizona was making a strange curdled face like she was trying and failing to hold back tears.

"I don't…I, I can't go! I can't go to Miami!" Arizona was almost petrified as she cried out her refusal. Callie tried everything to calm her down, but it just wasn't working. She was crying and shouting at the same time now, and making seemingly random statements in between gasps for air.

"I can't go! I can't go! I don't have the ring I can't go!"

Callie quickly got up and dashed to the fridge.

"Hey, Ok. I got you a doughnut it's soft and moist and full of yummy glaze." Arizona scoffed as she took the doughnut and bit into it.

"It's not funny."

"I'm not laughing." Callie assured her. "I love you, and if you don't want to go to Miami we don't have to go to Miami. There was a pregnant pause that was followed by a long sigh.

"I don't want to go to Miami without your ring." Arizona explained.

"I don't need a ring for us to be married; I have every intention of honoring my promise to you. But, if someday, you want us to wear rings I can do that too." Callie explained. "This is for life."

Callie kissed Arizona, first on the forehead then on the lips.

Just as Arizona was starting to feel happy, that guilty feeling crept up on her again. What had she done to deserve someone as kind and caring as Callie, she wished she could understand it, but she didn't things really couldn't be going this well, not after everything she'd done. Still here she was kissing a gorgeous woman who looked eager to take her clothes off, a woman she loved more than anything else.

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**Please read, Please Review. I am not ashamed to beg! :)**


	9. What About Your Friends

**AN**:So, It's been a while. I am on a break though and trying to wrap up all my fics so this one is getting finished ASAP. Sorry for the wait.

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Arizona was trying her hardest to stay focused at work, but it was hard now that Samantha was visiting the hospital practically every day, okay really only twice a week, but it was two times too many for Arizona. It was getting so bad she was even starting to see Samantha in her sleep. Last night she dreamed that Callie and Dr. Bowen were staying late at the hospital speaking Spanish to each other and reenacting scenes from Caroline in the City. Arizona had had enough! So, when a certain perky redhead came waltzing by on her way to a board meeting, Arizona felt obligated to inform her that her presence was no longer welcome.

"Dr. Woodson" Arizona called out causing a startled Samantha to spin around with a puzzled expression on her face.

"Oh, I'm sorry I forgot, it's Bowen now isn't it." Arizona lied.

Samantha still wasn't clear on what was going on or why Arizona had reacted so strangely upon seeing her. She wasn't even picking up on what seemed to be clear hostility on Arizona's part.

"Hey, Arizona!" She said with a genuine smile.

"I've been meaning to catch you…"

She was about to invite Arizona for lunch, but the ice-cold look coming toward her finally stopped her in mid-sentence. Arizona took a second to calm herself before stepping forward rather quietly so that she was close enough for only Samantha to hear her. Then, in as low and assertive a tone as she could muster, she said

"You will no longer be speaking to Dr. Torres"

Though her initial reaction was to chuckle she quickly refrained after realizing Arizona was actually serious.

"I'm sorry, I really don't know where this is coming from" Samantha sighed in confusion.

Arizona wasn't letting Samantha's sudden bout of amnesia get to her. They'd stopped walking now and were pulled into a corner behind the nurse's station.

"I know you have a habit of stepping all over people for your own personal gain" Arizona began "and I'm just not going to let you do that again" she knew Callie didn't need her protecting, she just wanted to make sure Samantha knew Arizona wasn't going to forget what she did to her.

"I don't see how my interactions with Dr. Torres are any of your business" Samantha huffed.

Arizona leaned in just a little closer, she wanted to try and shake Dr. Bowen a bit.

"I think her being my wife sort of makes it my business" Arizona explained her voice still low but threatening. She watched all too gleefully as Dr. Bowen dropped back in shock and walked away.

*****XX*****

Callie was really enjoying the ortho wing, something she felt rather peculiar about, though she couldn't really pinpoint why. She was working with April today and getting an unhealthy amount of pleasure from making the young resident jump every time she called her name, it was like playing jack-in-the-box over and over again. She'd been looking forward to today's surgery for almost three months now and as it got closer more and more people around the hospital started to get interested, or interested in psyching her out. She tried not to let it bother her, but already today she'd been accused of being insane and or having self-destructive tendencies. Even, April would occasionally express her doubts about the riskiness of what they were about to do.

"I can't believe we're doing this. I mean it's awesome, but it also sort of sucks very much" she rambled.

Callie put her game face on and made quick work of pulling her hair up into a pony for the OR.

"Keptner!" she called out with a bit of boom to her voice. "We are doing this, you are ready and we are going to kick this surgery's ass. Keptner say you're going to kick ass!" Callie ordered.

"I…wait what?" April stuttered looking perplexed.

"Say it Keptner!" Callie insisted.

"I'm going to …kick ass" April finally mumbled.

The surgery they were performing, the one everyone was convinced Callie had lost her mind over, was a double knee replacement. Simple enough, except that their patient Robin suffered from sickle cell anemia and had already suffered two previous blood clots due to complications from the disease. Callie was planning on using tissue massage to maintain circulation during the surgery and hopefully avoid another clot.

The gallery filled up rather quickly and everyone looked eager to see the surgery backfire so they could be the first to say "I told you so" but Callie had done her research so she was more than confident she would be able to pull this off and that Robin would have an essentially average recovery time given more in depth monitoring and therapy. The first knee went well with Callie doing all of the cutting and drilling while April cleaned up after her and closed things up using the stich Callie taught her during her solo surgery. They were beginning to get excited, maybe too excited. As she prepared to open up around the second knee Callie noticed some discoloration that seemed slightly concerning she dismissed it as normal given the patients state and lack of mobility, but then right as she'd cut down to the bone she saw what looked like a massive clot in the vein just behind the knee.

"Blood pressure is rising Dr. Torres" April pointed out.

"Thank you, I've noticed" Callie shot back. If things didn't already look bad, they were about to get worse because Calllie's hand was cramping up on her and she actually had to drop her instruments to wring out the kinks. She took in a deep breath and allowed herself a moment to think.

"Turn the circulatory machines off" Callie ordered looking at pretty much anyone in the room. She had this idea that perhaps the massage was working too well, and if that was the case the blood might be moving in too quickly rather than not moving at all. So she took a risk and hoped that if they did nothing at all, the situation would resolve on its own once blood flow returned to its natural status.

"Dr. Torres we have three minutes before you have to close her back up." April chimed in.

"Just wait" Callie insisted. Sure enough two minutes into their pause Robin's heart rate began to slow and the pocket in her vein went away. Callie then moved swiftly to take the second knee out and perform the replacement. After April finished closing up Robin's incisions they turned the circulatory machines back on so that Robin could rest without becoming too sedentary. Naturally everyone rushed to congratulate her after the surgery, some even adding that they knew she'd pull it off all along. Callie was used to it, it was part of the professional jealousy that ran rampant in hospitals like Seattle Grace. They all wished it had been them in the OR instead of her.

April looked up at her, still as wide eyed and sheepish as the day she'd been transferred from Mercy West. "You were amazing" she gushed.

"She was, wasn't she." Callie suddenly heard Arizona echo from behind them.

"I have a thing I need to do really quickly, but wait for me so I can take you to lunch" Arizona instructed and Callie agreed without even questioning her. She watched as Arizona strode confidently away toward the pediatrics wing.

Callie stood just beside the stairway next to the main entrance waiting for Arizona. Whatever Arizona's thing was it was taking far longer than she had anticipated. She suddenly heard footsteps moving quickly down the stairs the way Arizona usually did, but when she looked up Callie was surprised to be greeted by none other than Dr. Samantha Bowen.

"Hey, Dr. Torres, great work today" Samantha enthused with a smile. She'd decided to try not to let Arizona's words get to her.

Callie returned the smile but didn't have much else to say. She hoped Samantha would take the hint and move on quickly.

"I noticed you were flexing your hands again" Samantha spoke up while reaching out to take hold of one of Callie's arms. "Do you mind if I take a look?"

Callie quickly recoiled and looked up at Samantha in shock.

"Listen, I don't know what happened between you two, but I love her, so lets just keep this professional." Callie was calm and polite in her explanation, but nonetheless serious.

Samantha took in a deep breath and pushed her hair further out of her face before responding.

"I didn't know you were married." She finally let out. "What happened between me and Arizona was ages ago. But I know there's no way to fix what I did…"

Samantha was just about ready to admit what she'd done when Callie put her hand up in silent refusal.

"You're not going to get any absolution from me, I'm not the person you hurt."

Callie once again heard footsteps descending the stairs, this time the right ones. She didn't mean to come off as rude, but the way she saw things, if Samantha and Arizona were going to be friends again, that situation would fix itself, as much as it pained her to admit, she couldn't interfere this time.

Arizona was a bit surprised to see the two of them standing together, Callie's hair was still up from surgery like she'd forgotten about it in the shower. It gave Arizona the perfect view of her neck just below the hairline. She suddenly realized Callie hadn't forgotten at all, she knew that was Arizona's weak spot and it wasn't the first time she'd pulled a stunt like that to distract her.

"Dr. Bowen" Arizona acknowledged before walking off with Callie.

*****XX*****

Arizona reached the end of the road then instructed Callie, who had been waiting patiently for her lunch time surprise, to open her eyes. As she did, Callie saw her old t-bird parked on the side of an old dirt road out by a massive stretch of farm land. Just off to the side was a clearing in the field where Callie saw a table draped in picnic plaid with placemats and other table settings.

"Arizona?" Callie questioned. "What is all this?"

Arizona didn't say a word she simply walked Callie over to the thunderbird and hopped into the passenger's seat. Then Callie understood, Arizona had gone through the trouble of recreating Callie's favorite date which was just about the sweetest thing she could possibly do. Callie drove around the field for a bit and listened to Arizona talk about her day and how she wished she could have watched all of Callie's surgery and not just the end. Then Callie told her about a patient she'd been soliciting and how she was planning something even bigger six months from now.

They'd circled around three or four times when Callie suddenly pulled the car to a stop.

"I'm really hungry" she explained

Failing to catch on, Arizona looked behind them at the picnic table that seemed too far to walk to. "Okay, well we should probably drive a bit closer to…" before she could finish the thought, Arizona was caught off guard by a kiss from Callie.

"We're going to eat here first" Callie explained, effectively ending Arizona's confusion.

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**AN**: If You're still with me on this fic, I really appreciate it. Thank you again for reading


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